ANN ARBOR -- Oh, how this season changed in the course of a misspent weekend.

The Michigan football team, unbeaten for 2 1/2 months until the ugliest Saturday for college football's elite in three decades, has all the mathematics and little of the momentum in its favor now that starting quarterback Wilton Speight went from slinging passes to wearing a sling.

The twisted information system surrounding the sly-and-secretive Michigan program was on full display in the aftermath of their quarterback's injury, so exactly what in Speight's left shoulder ails him remains uncertain. If he is lost with a broken collarbone, as reported by MGoBlog.com and the Detroit Free Press, the ramifications are extreme for a team that was 9-0 and seemingly cruising to a reckoning day in Columbus before a weekend implosion which hasn't relented yet.

Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said only that Speight's status this weekend could be uncertain and he would not take first-team repetitions in early practices this week. Later, on his radio show, Harbaugh said reports that Speight is out for the season are inaccurate. That doesn't necessarily mean Speight does not have a broken collarbone; he could have one and Harbaugh simply is leaving open the possibility of a postseason return. Harbaugh never did disclose the nature of the injury and his ongoing and intentional vagueness may amount to nothing more than a non-denial denial. Or maybe it isn't, and all of Speight's bones are fully intact.

This is Michigan football.

Monday, two days after their championship path narrowed in a 14-13 loss at Iowa, the Wolverines who were collared into addressing the media this week were left to assure everyone their path wasn't re-routed entirely. They were charged with saying all the right things in endorsing next-man-up John O'Korn, which they did admirably. They are University of Michigan students, after all.

They also are U-M football players with championship hopes that even one more loss will derail, and it was in that vein that all manner of cliches were bandied around about trust, and coaches putting players in positions to succeed, and not pushing the panic button, and not changing course, and confidence in their teammate, and leaving it all on the field.

They have little choice, because whether Speight returns this season or not, the quarterback who almost certainly must steer Michigan past a suddenly trickier home game Saturday against Indiana, then maybe start at Ohio State, then ideally a Big Ten Championship Game, will wear No. 8, not Speight's No. 3.

O'Korn, a fourth-year junior transfer, has experience and is a little better runner than Speight, whose mobility largely is confined to subtle pocket movement.

That's as Pollyannaish as anyone outside the inner sanctum should get about it.

This isn't a good situation, and the continuation of Michigan's emotional makeover -- from its once-lofty position tucked in behind top-ranked Alabama, and perhaps positioned to reach the College Football Playoff even with a loss, to wasting that mulligan in Iowa City -- has left absolutely no room for error. Three wins to a Big Ten title, five to a national title, and one more loss to picking up bowl scraps. The math is simple, workable and formidable.

In the 11th game of the season, O'Korn takes over leadership of a team someone else led for the first 10 games.

He has had ample repetitions with the first unit in practice, so the adjustment to the different voice in the huddle and the different cadence shouldn't be extreme.

The adjustment to the different temperament could be.

The adjustment to whatever separated Speight from O'Korn in spring football and preseason camp could be.

O'Korn is a pro-style quarterback who fits the Michigan system better than the spread at Houston, where he started as a freshman in 2013, then lost the job to Greg Ward Jr. after a 2-3 start his sophomore year (Houston went 6-2 the rest of the way), then transferred to Michigan before Speight beat him out for the starting job this year.

So Michigan may go to Columbus with a starting quarterback who lost a starting competition at two different places. Ward is an outstanding multi-dimensional talent and Speight played well before his injury, so it isn't as if O'Korn lost out to nobodies, but that doesn't exactly foster confidence in this home stretch of conference and national championship pursuits, either.

Harbaugh said Monday the Wolverines "have to soldier up" now at his weekly press conference, which also featured two defensive players who never huddle and rarely meet with quarterbacks, and tight end Jake Butt.

Butt predictably gave a glowing review of the next man throwing him the ball. O'Korn has attempted 637 college passes, none to Butt.

"Even when he redshirted last year and he couldn't play, he would still sit in the front row at every meeting," Butt said of O'Korn. "Probably one of the best note takers on the team. Always wanted to be the first guy watching film. That kind of preparation kind of just speaks to the way he is as a player, as a person and as a leader. So I think that's where the confidence (in him) kind of comes from."

O'Korn's attentiveness and experience have to translate quickly, late in a potential championship season, playing with the first-team offense, against first-team defenses.

Speight's growth this season has been phenomenal, from inexperienced underdog to O'Korn in spring ball to Big Ten co-offensive player of the week the Saturday before his injury. He ranks among conference and national leaders in yards per pass attempt and passes of 20-plus yards. He was evolving into a big-play quarterback.

Timetable for a broken collarbone would dictate that Speight couldn't play again until after the Big Ten Championship Game at earliest. Any possibility he might have of returning in postseason would depend on whether he required surgery.

None of that is known until Michigan formally acknowledges the injury and course of treatment.

From the glass-half-full department, this is why teams have quality backups. O'Korn is from Pennsylvania, went to a prep school in Florida where he was all-state and a state champion, and will start for his second college team this weekend. Many considered him the favorite to beat out Speight for the starting job this year. Then he didn't.

You never want your starting quarterback to go down in mid-November but the stakes remain the same.